Portico of a Macau House
Item
Title
Portico of a Macau House
Creator
George Chinnery
English, 1774-1852
English, 1774-1852
Date
c. 1825-45
Materials
Watercolor with pen and ink
Measurements
5-1/4 x 7-1/2 in. (13.3 x 19.1 cm)
Description
George Chinnery entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1792, and upon the completion of his training four years later he moved to Ireland, where he found success as a portrait painter. He returned to London in 1801, but within a year, evidently in an effort to escape a failing marriage, he sailed to India, settling first in Chennai (Madras) and then Kolkata (Calcutta). By the end of the decade he had become the leading British painter in the country. In 1825, mounting debts forced Chinnery to move yet again, this time to Macau, in southern China, where he remained for the rest of his career.
Chinnery supported himself through commissioned portraits and the sale of larger landscapes executed in oil. His watercolors were painted purely for his own pleasure. Over his career he filled dozens of sketchbooks with charming pastorals and genre scenes depicting the everyday life of Macau, nearby Guangzhou (Canton), and, after 1841, Hong Kong.
Chinnery supported himself through commissioned portraits and the sale of larger landscapes executed in oil. His watercolors were painted purely for his own pleasure. Over his career he filled dozens of sketchbooks with charming pastorals and genre scenes depicting the everyday life of Macau, nearby Guangzhou (Canton), and, after 1841, Hong Kong.
Source
Palmer Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University, Bequest of Dr. and Mrs. Harold L. Tonkin
Identifier
86.292
Rights
This image is posted publicly for non-profit educational uses, excluding printed publication. Other uses are not permitted.